Its kind of a dirty rebuild since I am going to reuse the same pistons and rods. Last summer the engine would get hot on idle. I noticed there was oil in the water but no water in the oil so I decided maybe it was a head gasket that was slightly leaking. What I did not expect was the both sides had a lot of broken dampeners. All of the valve stem seals were eaten up. So I took off both sets of heads and kept them under the bench. In the meantime, I found another set of 461 heads with 1.94 valves. The heads on my corvette were 461x heads which had bigger valves installed plus were ported back in the 70s. I took both sets of the heads to a local machinist. He had them for quite awhile and was not sure which ones to rebuild. Last month speedway had their aluminum double hump heads on sale. So I picked those ones up. Now, I have two sets of cast iron heads sitting in the corner in the garage but thats okay.

You can see what I found and saw after taking the valve springs apart:




Worn guides


Notice the speck of blue and shiny material thats bits of the valve spring seals:


The pistons did show some cleaned off areas:


So now, to the rebuild:
I tore down the engine because I assumed metal went through the bottom end. I found lots of material in the pickup screen:


The bearings were marked up from the valve stem debris:


I took the crank to another machinist in town. He was able to polish the crank. He said now its .011 on the mains and rods. He mic'd it too. Last night, I picked up the crank and resurfaced flywheel and dropped off the block. The machine shop is going to tank, hone, magnaflux and check the cam bearings, I might as well get some piece of mind that the block is good to go. Just to clear my conscience and give me warm fuzzy feeling.

This block is a CE block 3959512 Feb 18th 1974. I was told a high nickel casting block but that just might be a myth... The crank is a forged 4577 crank.












Bearing wear:



So now, its all torn down. My next steps are to clean the pistons. I have plenty of work to do in the engine bay since its a mess. I guess I really never kept it that clean. Its only been 8 years on the road. I will address the uncleanliness.

New parts:
hvhp pump
pickup
oil pan with magnet plug
roller cam
roller button
roller tip rockers
roller lifters
gaskets
timing gear and chain for retro fit
timing cover
aluminum water pump
edelbrock AVS2 650. I gave my son my 1406
piston rings
shorter push rods
speedway double hump heads
ARP stainless steel bolt kit
new balancer (I had to shim mine to make it work)
remflex exhaust gaskets
new freeze plugs
new rod and main bearings

Reusing:
clutch/pressure plate
rods/pistons (.030)
polylocks
arp head bolts
distributor
generator
overflow tank
Performer EPS intake (yes, it fits)
fuel pump and rod.
oil pump shaft
motor mounts
oil bypass
bronze pilot bushing
Exhaust manifolds



This is a later 70s model small journal 327 from all of my research:
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...please.801998/

I told my son my corvette motor was built around same time as his corvette 010 L82 engine.

 

A 512 is just a CE counter exchange engine block. It may even have both notches in it for small.and large journal bearings, I cant tell from your photo, and there is no such thing as a GM high nickle block.

 

Yeah, I found some information that John Hinckley wrote regarding the foundry markings. It is a 70s version of the 327 which to me is pretty cool. It does not have any notches for a large journal. The other thing thats weird is there is no mention in the chevy by the numbers book that I have regarding this engine block. Either way, its still going back in if all goes well with the check up. It is just different is all. I kind of like things that don't look the same. Kind of like the old 292 that built up in a old truck. Its cool stuff.

 

Mind the messy garage. I am still working on the block some more. One thing I have to do is keep smoothing out the bottom of the cylinders. I have been smoothing out the rough edges. Everything checked out with the block at the machine shop.

 

crank after being polished and mic'd plus the heads. I removed the paint on the front motor mount where the water pump gaskets are located. The exhaust inlets on the manifolds have been ported to match the heads. I am going to use remflex gaskets to make sure those do not leak.

 

Progress, it will run again soon. Your comment about the crank being now at .011 undersize? .001 makes a big difference in Oil spill inside the block. We used to have bearings at .011 over which would compensate for you but I think that size was only available in the 350 journals not the 327 journal size. A high volume pump should compensate some but the build will be loose. I am thinking your mains and rod clearances will be at .003 plus. That will affect oil pressure in your engine. I like to go the other way and keep the oil clearance down to .002 max rods and mains. Someone like King Bearing might have the .011 327 bearings available. They always seemed to have the odd sizes.
Mark

 

You are going to like those heads.

 

Its more of a joke... Really nothing changed in the crank journals as far as diameter. Yeah, I have a new M55HV pump in the trunk ready to get put on. Really, I did not have any issues with oil pressure. It would go over the 60 mark all of the time while cold then go down to about 50 or so when it was hot. I would assume that oil pressure will be fine. I am going to add a windage tray this time around.

 

More block prepping. Smoothed out the sharp edges and corners. Opened up the rear gallery holes

 

Taking notes…. 🍿

 

Last step, wash well with warm soapy water to remove all the machining dust, of course this also involves getting it dry again once clean, blow moisture out with air and oil it before rust sets in. It is looking really nice.

Warm soapy water is the only effective way to get all the fine machining dust out of an engine, crank, heads, prior to a build. A toilet brush works well on cylinders for the wash.

The Piston ring engineer would walk into shops and always carried a clean white handkerchief, he would go up to the assembly line and put a little WD 40 on his clean white handkerchief and wipe a cylinder before the build started. If his white cloth came away with a gray stain he would to to the owner and discuss cleaning. If his cylinder wipe came away still white he would congratulate the owner of the shop. Many shops failed the test. The gray on the cloth is machining dust, fine metal that adheres to the freshly machined cylinders and ends up in the oil galleries. The goal is to remove it prior to your build. The fine metal particles come loose once hot oil hits them and ends up in the piston rings and bearings.

Sorry if I am repeating advice you have heard many times before. Enjoy your new build. It will be fun to hear how it runs for you.

 

We have a car wash very close to us which is less than a mile away so that's always nice to have to get engine blocks cleaned up. I have a pressure washer too though I have to get some bolts to hold down the pump because those got sheared off when my son last used it. Usually, I will get the garage cleaned up beforehand. I will use lots of purple power too. I have plenty of brushes to go through all of the ports. Afterwards, I use those microfiber towels from harbor freight and a big bottle of WD40. Then it goes into a bag. Right now, I am not at that point. I still have some other parts to clean up plus I have to take the transmission out and clean and paint some of the firewall and frame area. I need to go through each item in the firewall to check it over and tighten up any loose parts.

The last year, we did his block for his 74 corvette. He and I cleaned up the drive way by sweeping, using a leaf blower then hosing down the driveway as best as we could We had to do all the rest of the drying and cleaning the block in the driveway because all bays were in use. Afterwards, we put the engine block in a nice clean part of the garage where he could get it assembled. I gave him a large plastic bag which the inside of the bag was sprayed down with WD40. He spent quite a bit of time going through each of the ports with various brushes. Making sure its completely dry and no metal left in the passages. I usually will bleed out the air tank on the compressor before starting so its not full of water condensation.

 

Sounds like you are all over building a clean engine.

 

Not sure... I am willing to fess up to my mistakes.

First time:
1. I accidentally set the crank/chain timing onto retard causing all of the pistons to slap.
2. I had someone redo the heads afterwards and did not check to see that the springs were set at the correct height with the adequate spring pressure.
3. I did not check the intake gaskets fit after summit sold me the wrong ones.
4. I install a low volume standard pump only to get 3lbs of pressure tore the engine apart to check the clearances once more. Replaced the pump with a M55HV and boom got good oil pressure.

On my son's engine.
1. I accidentally grabbed the wrong oil pump shaft off of my friends speed shop wall. It was for a big block and not a small block. Opps.... We just put the old one back in since it was in great shape.
2. My son forgot to tighten down the front swivel thermostat housing on the intake. My other son thought it was a leaky intake gasket so we pulled it off and found out it was fine then I noticed the thermostat housing was leaking. We were on a deadline and kind of in the quick mode when that happened.
3. My son did not align the alternator belt and did not have the alternator mount correct. It ate the belt while he was driving his prom date to the dance. My wife and I had to change the belt in the dark on the side of the road. Its now not throwing belts.
4. My older son put the intake on and did not lay down a bead of right stuff. It leaked on the back for a few days until I had time to show him how to do it right with new bead on the china walls.

Like I said to both my sons... This time we are gonna take it slow and check everything over really well before we go to the next step. It does not need to be rushed. My goal is to have it running by April 25th. I think that's doable since the only thing left to get are the push rods once I am able to check the length that is required. This weekend, Its all about getting the rest of the parts cleaned up and the firewall done. I plan on taking the block down to the car wash early this week so I can get the engine preassembly/mockup started.

 

Awesome! Love the details on your build and your building it with your Sons!

Working on a 327 build also..for my c2, but my 13 year old has no interest..

 

Yes, they are both out there when they can help me. Both of them are pretty busy. My oldest son helped me even when he was a small toddler. He has been around it way more than my other son. Though, my younger son is now a corvette owner so he thinks he knows a lot already. He still has lots to learn. My older son is more into technical reading on performance mods. He has worked at my friends speed shop in the back where he worked on customer's vehicles. My youngest son works at Jiffy Lube. He recently got promoted to work in the bay. My advice is get him out in the garage and show him what he can do to help whether that is cleaning parts, checking fitment and so forth. Now, my youngest son was not interested as much until he bought his own C3. He is now interested in working on cars. His corvette still has some work to do. For instance, right now, he is replacing the rear strut arms or links. He got one done and will get the other side done on Saturday. He is buying new front shocks and replace those soon. He does get frustrated with me when we were assembling the engine asking why we keep taking it apart and putting it back together. He realized why we had to do it afterwards. Also same goes for the fiberglass work. Lots of fitment going on and off until we had it good enough.

My advice is to let him have his time then spend about 1/2 hour or 1 hour a few days out of the week when you can to teach him. Ask him if he wants to help. Give him or her the power to make the decision. It takes patience because sometimes I do not agree with what either one of my sons does sometimes. My youngest son thought it was okay not use any washers when he torqued the bolts for the engine stand mount on the back of the engine. That wasted about an hour because I already put away the cherry picker and chain. Just a little patience...

Heck show him how to use a balancer removal tool to pull of the balancer. Thats a fun job! That engine looks very familiar.

 

This weekend, I made some more progress. My hands are all torn up and sore after cleaning bolts and small parts.

Over the weekend, I got the following done:
Removed transmission and bellhousing
Cut down water pump studs (yes, I installed two studs on the driver side)
Painted pulleys
Chased all exhaust bolts.
Paint exhaust manifolds
primed/painted other cylinder head.
clean all pistons and rods
removed piston rings
Checked head bolts depth
painted all the intake fittings
painted fan blade and radiator shroud
clear coated intake
painted heads
cleaned motor mount fasteners
Cleaned all of the other fasteners

Tonight:
clean starter
clean generator
Clean and paint hood support
chase all threads for generator and starter
Chase exhaust manifold bolts
clean bellhousing
clean throw out bearing and arm
chase all radiator support threads.
chase flywheel bolts
clean coil and coil bracket then paint coil bracket.

 

It doesn't get much better than that in this hobby . I hope you are enjoying your build .

 

Yeah, the only problem is my bad foot is talking to me each morning. It is fun but also time consuming and I am constantly adding to the list of todo work. My goal is to get everything ready by the end of this week so I can start the mockup and final assembly which means the engine bay and all of the parts cleaned or painted.

my goal to complete by the end of this is week is to have all of the following done::
clean starter
clean generator
chase threads for starter
clean bellhousing and chase threads
clean throw out bearing and arm
chase flywheel bolts
clean distributor
touch up last head.
thread chase all holes.
install screens for oil galleries
install lifter vent breathers
cleanout radiator
clean engine bay
tighten all fasteners in engine bay
clean transmission
clean the inside of the expansion tank
remove oil from frame and transmission bell housing
check all fasteners in the engine bay
thread chase all bolts on the engine block
clean engine block
paint engine
clean crankshaft
clean new oil pump
clean camshaft and lifters
sand and paint radiator support
install new freeze plugs
clean and check driveline
install clutch fan to fan blade

 

Did you mention he camshaft brand, specs and lifter brand?